Archive for News
Responding to Anti-LGBT Rhetoric in N.C.
Posted by: | CommentsNorth Carolina is in the news again, this time because of an anti-LGBT sermon preached by Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C. You can see footage of his sermon here.
Make no mistake: the violent theology animating Pastor Worley’s sermon is directly linked to the discriminatory animus at work in Amendment One or the North Carolina statutes that treat LGBT people as second-class citizens.
The violence of Pastor Worley’s message speaks to the evil at the heart of persecution, and it ensnares all of us, including him, including me. It is an evil that seeks to dehumanize people and that seeks to divide communities. It has long lurked in the shadows of religious and political discourse and, periodically, makes itself plainly visible and clearly heard.
What are we to do when such attacks occur? Each of us has an individual choice to make about how to respond.
I often need help cutting through the static of anger and sadness in moments like this. I need help getting to love and, in my own life, I turn to my faith for that help. My faith’s teachings on this point are clear and consistent: no matter how hard it is to do so, we are called to love those who oppose us. There are many reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that my existence is inextricably bound to my enemy’s, whether either one of us likes it or not.
The hard thing right now is to find a way to love Pastor Worley. To do so does not also imply condoning or supporting what he has said. But it does mean choosing to respond to spiritual violence with the only force that can overcome it: love. And it means seeing the violence of his words as an expression of how he too has been wounded by a persecuting system; his theology isn’t just plain wrong, it’s wounded.
But my faith also teaches me that the rhetoric of love is not enough. We must also act to directly resist unjust laws in public life and, as we take action, to express empathy and love towards all those we encounter. This is precisely why and how we take action with the WE DO Campaign and why this campaign will continue growing across the South until we achieve full equality under federal law.
Love has changed the world before and, we dare to believe, it can do so again.
We Do Campaign Returns to Asheville
Posted by: | CommentsEight cities. Five days. The We Do Campaign, led by brave LGBT couples across the state and organized by the Campaign for Southern Equality, returns to Asheville today after stops in Bakersville and Marshall. Yesterday the effort was in Winston-Salem. CBS News reports:
Mary Jamis, 52, of Mocksville, and a heterosexual friend who joined the protest, Mary Lea Bradford of Winston-Salem, were arrested after they blocked the entrance to the marriage license office and refused to leave more than 30 minutes after closing time.
A county administrator tried to talk the women into leaving and avoiding arrest, but the two insisted they would stay unless Jamis was issued a marriage license for her and her partner, Starr Johnson, 48.
[...]
Christine Regan, 35, and Megan Silbert, 34, of Winston-Salem, were rejected for the marriage license while a heterosexual couple a few steps away were receiving theirs.
Today at 3pm, I’ll be supporting the Asheville couples who will seek justice and be arrested today. Some of my good friends will be handcuffed and processed for seeking recognition of their relationships. Cindy and Laura are married in California, but they can’t even guarantee parental rights here in North Carolina. If you’d like to be a supporter you can bear witness today at the Register of Deeds’ office or you can Donate Here. Follow on Facebook or Twitter.
How’s That Austerity Plan Working For Ya?
Posted by: | CommentsJust in from Paris:
PARIS — Francois Hollande was elected France’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades on Sunday, dealing a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and shaking up European politics.[...]
The Socialist has vowed to renegotiate the hard-fought fiscal austerity pact signed by EU leaders in March and to make it focus more on growth, but is facing resistance from [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. The French vote coincides with an election in Greece, where voters were also expected to punish the incumbent parties for landing the country in its bleak economic state. Anger over sputtering economies has brought down leaders from Ireland to Portugal since the debt crisis washed over the European continent.
Payday lenders fund Rogers’ NC-11 campaign
Posted by: | Comments
We received the following press release this morning from 11th District congressional candidate and our friend Cecil Bothwell, reprinted in its entirety (I take responsibility for the funny picture over there on the right).
It’s fascinating stuff. Follow the money, as they say…
From Bothwell for Congress:
For immediate release: May 2, 2012
What: Payday lenders fund Rogers’ NC 11 campaign From: Bothwell for Congress
Contact: Cecil Bothwell
Phone: 828-713-8840
Website: http://bothwell2012.com
The Bothwell for Congress campaign will accept no money from corporations or corporate PACs. Our campaign is entirely funded by individuals. (The committee donation listed on our campaign finance reports is Bothwell for Buncombe, funded by individuals for Bothwell’s local races in 2008 and 2009). Our opponent has taken tens of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs. The most questionable sources are payday lenders.
Hayden Rogers has accepted $17,500 from individuals, lobbyists and special interest groups associated with the Payday Loan Industry. All of these donors are from outside of North Carolina, hailing from places such as Las Vegas, Miami, and South Carolina.
They are all from out-of-state because North Carolina banned the Payday Loan Industry in 2001.
It took until 2006 to fully shut down the industry (which played a cat and mouse game exploiting loopholes, changing names, etc.). In a 2006 press release NC Attorney General Roy Cooper said: “We’ve fought payday lending at every turn and now we’re putting this industry out of business here in North Carolina. These payday lenders thought they’d found a way around North Carolina law. Now we’re showing them the way out of our state.”
Without comment
Posted by: | CommentsI just heard about this:
Friday: http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/10980861/
Leaders of the North Carolina Democratic Party declined to answer questions Friday about reports that a junior staffer quit working for the party last fall after being sexually harassed by a senior party official.
Several party officials said they were told the party settled with the young man and that he signed a non-disclosure agreement. No financial settlement appears on the party’s finance reports.
The senior official allegedly behind the harassment is still working at the party’s Raleigh headquarters.
[...]
Sallie Leslie, a former administrator, quit the state party six weeks ago.
A top North Carolina Democratic Party official has reportedly been identified as the accused perpetrator in a sexual harassment claim made by a former staffer.
Jay Parmley, North Carolina’s Democratic Party executive director, has been accused of sexual harassment by Adriadn Ortega, a former communications staffer for the state party, according to a report by the J.W.P. Civitas Institute.
Tonight: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/04/15/2003701/nc-democratic-party-executive.html
RALEIGH — The executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party resigned Sunday as calls for his ouster mounted amid questions regarding a secret agreement to pay a former staffer to keep quiet about sexual harassment allegations.
An Amendment One Fable
Posted by: | CommentsFrom the venerable Aesop:
An Eagle had made her nest at the top of a lofty oak. A Cat, having found a convenient hole, lived with her kittens in the middle of the trunk; and a Wild Sow with her young had taken shelter in a hollow at its foot. The Cat resolved to destroy by her arts this chance-made colony. She climbed to the nest of the Eagle, and said: “Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too. The Wild Sow, whom you may see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, that she may, on its fall, seize our families as food.” Then she crept down to the cave of the Sow and said: “Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you shall go out with your litter to find food, the Eagle is prepared to pounce upon one of your little pigs.” When night came, she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens; but, feigning to be afraid, she kept a look-out all through the day. Meanwhile, the Eagle, full of fear of the Sow, sat still on the branches, and the Sow, terrified by the Eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave; and thus they each, with their families, perished from hunger.Those who stir up enmities are not to be trusted.
The occasion for the Aesop is a post at Pam’s House Blend. (The Blend’s version uses foxes instead of cats; you get the idea.) A Maine court document reveals one of the principle aims of the National Organization for Marriage:
According to a court document that was uploaded online, NOM specifically worked to drive a wedge between the black and gay community on the subject of marriage equality:
According to page 11 of this document called Marriage: $20 Million Strategy for Victory:
3. Not a Civil Right Project
The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks – two key democratic constituencies. We aim to find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage; to develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; and to provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots. No politician wants to take up and push an issue that splits the base of the party.
NOM has portrayed whatever African-American opposition to marriage equality its spotlighted as spontaneous attempts by leaders and members of the black community to keep its civil rights legacy from supposedly being “tainted” by a comparison to gay equality.
Pretty smart guy, that Aesop.
Rabbit Punch
Posted by: | CommentsWow! That’s terrific bunny.
New York Times, Krugman: BANG! You’re Dead law brought to you by the fine people at…
Lobbyists, Guns and MoneyFlorida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.
Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church — and he’s decided it’s time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision “unavoidable” after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be “subservient to their husbands.”
Senate Dems to set tax day vote on ‘Buffett Rule’ legislation
The third ranking Democrat in the Senate said lawmakers will debate legislation on “tax day” in mid-April, on the filing deadline for personal tax returns, that would ensure millionaires pay at least a 30 percent rate.
What makes NC different in gay marriage debate?
North Carolina, which likes to distinguish itself as a “vale of humility” surrounded by more bombastic neighbors, is the last state in the region without such an amendment. That fact is repeated constantly in the debate over a May 8 referendum when voters will have a chance to change the situation. But while it’s bandied about by both sides, it’s less clear what the distinction means.
Saturday Morning (Pledge) Drive
Posted by: | Comments
Asheville Free Media is ready to take the next steps in becoming a model for community-based Internet radio that focuses locally but has worldly appeal. We want to program even more high-quality, curated music shows, more simulcasts, more local and hyperlocal news, and in general better serve both our local and world-wide audiences. And to do all of this, we really need your help. Kickstarter link
